How To Structure Your Workday To Be More Productive
In this day and age, work can be overwhelming. This is especially true as more and more of us adjust to working from home full-time. Between neverending to-do lists and the influx of emails we all receive every day, it can be hard to keep up! We know the struggle! Be Inspired PR is a small (but mighty!) team, and we all manage a lot. Between our wedding and wellness PR clients, our social media management clients, and business coaching sessions, it’s safe to say we know what it feels like to be busy!
We can’t solve all of your work woes, but we can share a few tips on how to structure your workday. A few changes in how to structure your workday can make a huge difference in how much you’re able to accomplish and how you feel doing it. Ready for a few tweaks that will have you on your way to maximum productivity? Let’s do it!
Tip #1: Don’t start your workday in your inbox.
It sounds crazy, we know! Avoid the urge to respond to allllll of the emails in your inbox first thing in the morning. You know how it is. You respond to Karen’s email first thing, she writes back immediately, you respond, etc. All of a sudden, it’s lunch and you haven’t even looked at your to-do list!
Set aside 1-2 blocks of time during your day to focus on your inbox. As a result, you’ll find yourself spending less time in the black hole of Gmail, and more time getting your actual work done! If your job involves more time-sensitive communication, try 3-4 smaller blocks of time instead.
Tip #2: Organize tasks by both priority and how long they’ll take you.
When you look at your to-do list, make a note for each task on how time-sensitive they are and about how long they’ll take you. Here’s a fun cheat sheet to follow when organizing your list!
1) Urgent and quick to complete: Do these tasks first!
2) Urgent and requires more work: Spend the bulk of your time on these.
3) Not urgent and quick to complete: Leave these for the end of the workday when you’ve completed all your urgent tasks.
4) Not urgent and requires more work: Work on these as you have time!
Tip #3: Try batching.
You may have heard of the term batching before, but it’s super helpful when it comes to how to structure your workday! Batching just refers to grouping similar tasks together and doing them all at once. Whether it’s responding to submissions or writing Instagram captions, most tasks can be batched! If you do all of these tasks at the same time, you can focus on the project at hand and be more efficient overall.
For example, we schedule all of our social media client content up to 1 month in advance. That way, we’re not swamped with daily posting and caption writing, and our clients can rest easy knowing that their content has been thoughtfully planned well in advance.
Tip #4: Take breaks throughout the day.
Who knew that working less could actually make you more productive? Make sure you take real breaks during the day to unwind and refresh. Go on a walk at lunch, or eat lunch in another room away from your computer. Even 30 minutes away from your desk can change your productivity levels drastically! We don’t know about you, but we often come up with our best ideas when we’re not at our computers!
For more business and productivity tips like these, ask us about our business coaching sessions! You’ll work one-on-one with our founder, Leila, on how to streamline your business model and take control of your time again. Coaching sessions are currently 50% off, so it’s a great time to get started! We also share regular business tips on our PR & social media blog, so follow along here, too!